In Glendale, Karel Vejmelka made 45 saves as the Coyotes downed the Toronto Maple Leafs on Wednesday night, 2-1.
“It’s always better for you early to see so many shots, so I got to where I felt really good,” Vejmelka said. “My team helped me, and it was a big day for us today.”
Ryan Dzingel hit for a pair of goals for the Coyotes.
“We’re lucky we had `Vejjy’ back there tonight,” Dzingel said. “He puts in a lot of work behind the scenes, and he’s prepared. For a rookie, he’s unbelievably prepared and works his tail off.”
Arizona improved to 8-23-3.
“Certainly we had our looks, our opportunities,” Toronto’s John Tavares said. “It’s just one of those nights where you got to find a way to break through and, unfortunately, we didn’t. We’ve got to do a better job of winning some third periods.”
Auston Matthews scored the Maple Leafs only goal’ the strike extended his goal streak to nine games.
“I would have rather, obviously, taken the win,” Matthews said. “I’m still leaving the rink a little bit sour tonight at not getting those two points.”
The Maple Leafs dropped to 23-9-3.
“Our execution offensively wasn’t good enough,” Maple Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe said. “We clearly didn’t make good on our chances. We generated more than enough to score far more than we did but we didn’t execute and find ways to make it harder on their goaltender once he got in a groove.”
Dzingel scored to give the Coyotes a 1-0 lead, and his second was a response to Matthews tying the game, 1-1, in the third period.
“It’s the first shot I’ve had in a while and I shanked one high and then I got lucky, it was a really good bounce,” Dzingel said. “I haven’t had a lot of good bounces, so it’s nice to have.”
Petr Mrazek made 16 saves in the Toronto loss.
“The amount of shots and chances we had tonight, I thought we really controlled the play for the most part, but sometimes you run into a hot goalie,” Matthews said.
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